Confounded: Part II - 51. Chapter 51

CHAPTER 51 --==Kit's POV==--

"Alright, spill; what is up with you. You're supposed to yap it up and I'm supposed to be the brooding little shit," Tom said, as we sped down the highway. At the current pace we'd just make it in time before Duncan opened up the warehouse.
"But I'm in the mirror universe, doing all the yapping and you doing the brooding."

Shaken out of my thoughts, I glanced sideway to find Tom's annoyed gaze on me. I sighed.

"Sorry. It's just...Dad intercepted me in the kitchen, when I was getting coffee. Told me some things I hadn't realized, is all."

"And that's got you all in a funk?"

A little bit, yeah. I knew I'd been a shit to the guys and before we'd start to help out today, I'd have to make sure to tackle both Duncan and Danny and apologize. That wasn't the part that had me in a 'funk', as Tom put it. It was the other bit, about evolving in our relationship. I hadn't realized that things had gotten so out of hand and actually carried over into other things.

Biting the inside of my cheek, I then briefly told Tom the gist of what'd happened.

"So Dad thinks that I might be...umm...well; the way you and I, or actually I am, when I'm with you is carrying over to when I'm not with you."

"Mr. Bossy Top with a God complex?" Tom snickered.

"Hey!" I protested, hitting his arm. He sent me a 'Dude...seriously?' look. "Okay, fine. But I don't have a God complex."
That elicited a grin.
"Dad said I need to keep it in check. Private."

"You better!" Tom laughed, hitting my arm. "I'll get really angry if you do to others what you do to me."
He winked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"I don't do anything to you that you don't want. Or ask me to do. And you love it."

"Lies!"
We both knew better so I grinned but then a thought hit me.

"Wait; are we so different from, you know... regular..."
Tom seemed unconcerned about it and shrugged.

"I don't care. Neither should you. We're doing nothing wrong. Why do you care so much, what other people think? It's not like they are there."
I hadn't quite looked at it that way. It made sense.
"So that's it? You were getting a bit too cocky? And he called you on it?"

"Yeah."

"Easily solved. Get worked up, bring it home and take it out on me."
The look he sent me was downright mischievous.
"I promise I won't object," adding a second later, "much."

That made me laugh out loud.

"Deal!"

**********

We arrived at the warehouse with exactly one minute to spare. Duncan was already there and behind us, a few more cars were arriving.
Getting out, I immediately walked over to Duncan.

"Mornin' boys," he greeted us, his eyes curiously glancing at Tom.

"Hey Duncan. We've come to help out today..."

"I heard; your dad called me a few minutes ago. And who's this?"

"Duncan, meet Tom. Tom, this is Duncan, our foreman here."
Tom extended his hand and he took it, introducing himself.

"We sure can use your help, guys. What with the mishap, yesterday."
He winked at me and I felt my cheeks flush.

"Yeah, about that..."
I swallowed.
"I'm sorry. I was being a jerk. The whole thing was my fault to begin with and I didn't have the right to get angry."
Duncan waved it away.

"Already forgotten. It happens more often than you think. Relax. We'll get this sorted in no time. Hey Danny."
Behind us, Danny walked up, still looking very sleepy and I felt even more guilty now.

"Hi Danny..." I began, cautiously.
He greeted me no different than usual; hard slap on the shoulder and a little punch on the arm.

"Kit! No suit? I hardly recognize you! Oh I'm sorry, I can touch you, no? There's no label on these, right?"

He pinched my thick blue-white chequered shirt: the warehouse could be cold at times. His grin took the sting out of the comment but his meaning wasn't lost on me. My cheeks heated up another degree.

"Sorry 'bout that, man. I didn't mean to be such a jackass about it."
I got a poke in the ribs for it.

"It's alright, kiddo. All good. See you brought help?"

And quick introduction round ensued for Tom, who shook the hand of each and every one of them, and we headed inside.

**********

The BSL warehouse was huge. Measuring 350 by 500 yards, it contained rows upon rows of shelves going way up to the rafters. The guys, when fetching or storing something way up high, called it 'putting it up in the steel' and used forklifts to get them there.

Everything we distributed came through here at some point, delivered and departing by truck through the five loading docks.

At all times of the day, except at night, a crew of 30 worked here in two shifts (15 per shift) and I'd spent many a summer here, getting dirty, greasy and having a load of fun. Especially standing on the fork of the truck and being raised way up high when a box or pallet got stuck. Dangerous and very illegal (luckily Dad never found out), but never had we had any accidents. Well...once, but nothing really bad; after that, though, whenever we had to go up there, we'd be tethered with a safety line.

I knew the main office was working on a more automated system with overhead cranes, robots in the aisles and such. It would cost millions to install and work on it would start later this year. We'd have to divert to another location for temporary storage, while this building would be worked on. It was exciting to see the work progressing at the office and I remember very well the conversations with legal about job losses here, due to automation and Dad's concern about them.

Some of these guys had been with BSL for years. The solution was one Dad dreamed up not that long ago, where he proposed going over to a 24 hour schedule, needing less people in a shift yet retaining all of them. I'd been at that meeting. It seemed so simple, yet no one had thought of it yet. We'd still need people loading the trucks for transport all over the west coast and further inland, right? And, as employees got older, or moved on to other companies, we'd phase out to the correct amount and return to different scheduling.

"Jesus," it sounded beside me as Tom craned his neck to look way up. "This is all your dad's?"
I felt my chest swell with pride.

"Ahuh. Big, huh?"

"Damn...I didn't realize BSL was such a big company."

"Oh yeah, we distribute all over the place. Most of it on the west coast, but we ship to Japan, China, Australia as well. Up and coming market for us. Last year we moved about 2.5 billion."
His eyes widened.

"Profit?"

"Nooooo," I snickered. Hah, if only. "Value moved around. Moving boxes, basically. We store for other companies as well. And we're working on making it all automated. It's a big project at the office, right now, you'll see on Monday."

"Wow."
I could see he was impressed. Mr. Not-Easy-To-Impress.
"I didn't know this was what you guys did. Not at this scale, fuck. Alright, go get very worked up today and you can be Bossy Top as much as you want, tonight."

I grinned. Oh, I would want.